Violence overwhelms Christmas spirit in West Bank

Christian pilgrims pray inside the Grotto of the Church of Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Christmas Eve﻿.

Photo: Majdi Mohammed, STF

NABLUS, West Bank - In the best of times, or even in just normal times, or even in just normally tense times, Christmas is an especially festive season in the West Bank, where thousands of Palestinian Muslims and Christians join pilgrims to visit the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem.

But this year, the violence and upheaval have overwhelmed the holiday season, making it difficult to offer public expressions of cheer across the West Bank.

The Rev. Simon Hijazeen of the St. Justin's Latin Church in Nablus did not decorate his church and parish home in colorful lights this year. It was clear why: his neighbor's daughter, Maram Hasouna, 19, was killed trying to stab Israeli soldiers. Her family members hung a large banner of her picture from their apartment building, just down the street from the church.

"They are our neighbors and we are sympathetic to their grief," Hijazeen said.

Grim mood

The singular nod of the tiny Christian community in Nablus to the season was to raise a large tree, decorated with shiny baubles and topped with a Palestinian flag, in the middle of a traffic intersection in the northern West Bank city.

Palestinian Christians this year are dimming their festivities amid a grim mood as the West Bank lurches through an uprising that has seen attacks and violent demonstrations. Palestinians using knives, guns and vehicles as weapons have killed 19 Israelis, a U.S. student and a Palestinian resident of the West Bank over the past three months. More than 130 Palestinians have been killed during the same period, about two-thirds of them in carrying out, or attempting to carry out, attacks.

On Thursday, Israeli forces killed three young Palestinian men who they said were trying to carry out attacks. In one episode, a Palestinian tried to ram his vehicle into soldiers near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, lightly wounding a man before he was shot dead. Another tried to stab a soldier with a screwdriver at a checkpoint. Another Palestinian stabbed a man and woman in the Jewish settlement of Ariel, wounding both, officials said, before he was shot.

'Very tense times'

The decision to tone down Christmas was the initiative of Christian leaders in different towns, to show solidarity with their fellow Palestinians, residents said. Christian leaders said they asked their parish members not to honk their cars in traffic-blocking processions (Arabs traditionally organize noisy convoys for celebratory events). They asked for no fireworks.

And definitely, "no Santa," Hijazeen said firmly.

"It's not a plot to deny Christians from celebrating," said Bernard Sabella, a Palestinian Christian legislator and associate professor of sociology at Al Quds Open University. But, he added: "We are living in very tense times."

Others fulminated against the decision, saying that the Christian minority constantly felt obliged to show its allegiance in a society that is becoming more conservative and more Islamic.

"We worry that somebody will criticize us," said Abir Hanna, 50, the principal of the St. Joseph Latin Patriarchate School in Nablus.

Christians are an estimated 1 percent to 2 percent of the West Bank's 2.7 million Palestinians, although their numbers have been shrinking for at least a century because of low birthrates and decades of high emigration.